Psychosocial care for users of alcohol and other drugs: a study on professionals in a South-Brazilian municipality

Abstract

This study aimed to identify strategies adopted by professionals working in basic health care, in a municipality in the southern region of Brazil, and to analyze their perceptions about factors that are difficult and facilitating in caring for people with needs arising from the use of substances. This was a study with a predominantly qualitative approach. The sample consisted of 32 participants for quantitative data collection and 11 for qualitative data collection. The data were analyzed by means of the Thematic-Categorial Content Analysis, using the NVivo 12 software. The data indicated that the main facilitating strategies and factors were the attendance to spontaneous demands, home visits, family and reception. At the level of intervention, the articulation of support services and networks, matrix support, bond and multidisciplinarity and interprofessionality were evidenced as possibilities and potentialities in the work processes. As for the difficulty factors, there were excessive demands, fragility of bonds, stigma and prejudice, low adherence, centralization of services, insufficient professional training, lack of a matrix support, hegemony of the biomedical and institutionalized model, and divergence between care policies and practices. These results are expected to contribute to the formulation and implementation of policies and care practices for people who use drugs.

Keywords: drug use; primary health care; prevention; treatment